Man In Serious Condition After Officer Involved Shooting

Sunday, February 25th 2007, 8:40 pm

By: News On 6

Tulsa police open fire at an apartment complex, shooting a man. It happened Sunday afternoon at the Apache Manor Apartments near Apache and Marion. News on 6 reporter Joshua Brakhage reports a resident flagged down officers after seeing a man with a gun.

"First of all, when a call goes out that a man has a gun, we take it very seriously for the safety of our citizens as well as our officers," said Tulsa Police Officer Jason Willingham.

Police say they were just driving through the Apache Manor Apartments when a resident came up to them, saying a man was walking through the complex with a gun. Officers spotted the suspect and tried to confront him, but they say he ran off. Police chased the man, and when they saw he was armed, they opened fire. Officers say they fired at least six times, police say it's likely the suspect never fired a shot.

Dana Olden watched the confrontation from her living room.

"He was sitting there talking to these little girls along the way whenever the cops pulled up, and that's when he started walking and they started to open up their car doors and stuff and that's when they started sprinting off," she said.

"There were several different people out, witnessed it, and we did recover the weapon that he had, so obviously we're piecing the pieces together at this point, trying to determine exactly what happened," said Willingham.

Police say they recovered a semi-automatic, .25 caliber pistol. Later, neighbors told police the suspect had been flashing the gun to residents all afternoon.

A training officer and his rookie fired at the suspect, said police. Both have been questioned by homicide detectives and TPD internal affairs. The man was shot twice, once in the torso and once in the leg. He was taken to the hospital in serious condition.